Pitch Deck Writing
Parent: Writing and Documentation · researched 2026-05-29T19:03:54.390Z· 6 sources · 10 concepts · skill pitch-deck-writing
A pitch deck is a slide-based artifact that compresses a fundraising, sales, or partnership case into a tight narrative arc — usually 10 to 14 slides — designed to be skimmed in minutes and remembered
Overview
- A pitch deck is a slide-based artifact that compresses a fundraising, sales, or partnership case into a tight narrative arc - usually 10 to 14 slides - designed to be skimmed in minutes and remembered in seconds. [source]
1. The 10/20/30 rule (Kawasaki)
- Guy Kawasaki's rule for investor/pitch contexts: [source]
- 10 slides - the human mind cannot absorb more than ten concepts in a single sitting in a pitch context [source]
- 20 minutes - even if you have a full hour, present in 20 minutes; leave the rest for discussion [source]
- 30-point minimum font - if you cannot fit your message in 30pt type, you have too many words [source]
2. The canonical Sequoia / Reid Hoffman structure
- 10–12 slides in this order: [source]
- Title / Company purpose - one-line description [source]
- Problem - the customer pain, with evidence [source]
- Solution - your product as the answer [source]
- Why now - timing argument; why this couldn't have been built 5 years ago [source]
- Market size - TAM/SAM/SOM, bottom-up preferred [source]
- Competition - who else is in the space, how you differ [source]
- Product - screenshots, demo, key features [source]
- Business model - how you make money [source]
- Team - why this team can win [source]
- Traction - what you've already proven [source]
- Financials - current state and projections [source]
- Ask - how much you're raising, what you'll do with it [source]
- Slide 4 ("Why now") is the slide most founders skip and the slide most VCs care about. [source]
3. The narrative arc — problem → solution → traction → team → ask
- Strip away the template specifics and every effective pitch deck follows five beats: [source]
- Problem - establish the pain. The reader nods. [source]
- Solution - show your answer. The reader believes the answer is plausible. [source]
- Traction - prove it's working. The reader believes the answer is real. [source]
- Team - prove you can execute. The reader believes you specifically can win. [source]
- Ask - close. The reader knows what you want and what they get. [source]
4. The appendix convention
- Strong decks have an appendix - 5 to 20 extra slides beyond the main 10–12 - NOT shown in the live pitch but sent with the deck. [source]
5. The "no cliffhanger" rule
- Pitch decks are NOT mystery novels. Slide 1 should already answer "what does this company do" at headline level. [source]
6. "What I most want you to remember" — the closer
- End the deck with one slide that names the single thing you want the audience to walk away remembering. Not a recap - one sentence, one number, one image. [source]
7. The slide-title-as-thesis rule
Anti-Patterns
- The mystery opening - first 3 slides don't say what the company does. [source]
- Wall-of-text slides - paragraphs of body copy presented live. [source]
- No "why now" - deck skips the timing argument. [source]
- No traction (when you have some) - burying real data deep. [source]
- Generic team slide - "20+ years experience" instead of specific credentials. [source]
- Competition denial - "we have no competitors." [source]
- TAM inflation - "$2T global market" with no bottom-up math. [source]
- No ask - the deck ends with vague "let's talk." [source]
- Cliffhanger close - last slide is "Thank you" or "Questions?" [source]
References
Children
- 10/20/30 rule (Kawasaki) (frontier)
- Sequoia / Reid Hoffman structure (frontier)
- Y Combinator seed deck (frontier)
- Narrative arc (problem-solution-traction-team-ask) (frontier)
- Appendix slide convention (frontier)
- What I most want you to remember closer (frontier)
- No-cliffhanger rule (frontier)
- Narrative deck vs traditional deck (frontier)
- Designer + writer collaboration (frontier)
- Slide title as thesis (frontier)
Frontier under this node: 10/20/30 rule (Kawasaki), Appendix slide convention, Designer + writer collaboration, Narrative arc (problem-solution-traction-team-ask), Narrative deck vs traditional deck, No-cliffhanger rule, Sequoia / Reid Hoffman structure, Slide title as thesis, What I most want you to remember closer, Y Combinator seed deck